The chapter opens by outlining adoption’s attractions: offering a home to an existing child, avoiding fertility-treatment stress, bypassing genetic and high-risk pregnancy concerns, and sometimes knowing the infant’s health or sex in advance. It contrasts these with disadvantages such as cost and the scrutiny of home studies. Valid reasons to adopt include infertility, environmental concerns, adding to a family after biological children, single parenthood, or being a gay couple choosing adoption.

Readers are urged to reality-test expectations, learn from experienced adoptive parents, fully mourn infertility losses before adopting, consider the needs of existing children, and be realistic about the demands of special needs placements and work-life balance. The chapter emphasizes that unresolved grief can hinder bonding with an adopted child.

It then maps adoption forms: domestic agency placements (local or interstate), independent domestic adoptions requiring legal coordination across states, and international adoptions via agencies or independent routes that may involve travel and waiting periods. Open adoption is introduced as mutual contact between adoptive and birth parents that can empower both sides. Guidance and support for transracial or multicultural adoption are highlighted, with agencies and organizations offering education and community.

Special needs adoptions—older children, children of color lacking same-race placements, or children with disabilities—are often less expensive and more available, but demand substantial time and attention. Legal risk adoptions begin as fostering with uncertain permanency; they can be rewarding but emotionally risky, especially for those already grieving infertility or pregnancy loss. These options tend to suit families with significant at-home caregiving capacity.

The adoption process overview clarifies that “home study” mostly occurs at the agency and focuses on safety and preparedness, not perfection. Typical steps include informational, individual, couples, group, and follow-up meetings, plus a home visit, with ongoing support while waiting. Finally, the chapter addresses simultaneous pursuit of pregnancy and adoption: it can hedge against age and treatment limits but risks burnout, agency conflicts, and disrupted placements. Ground rules include honest communication with agencies, mutual agreement within the couple, careful scheduling, and respecting agencies’ mandate to minimize delays for children, recognizing the risk of ending up with neither placement nor pregnancy if plans change.